Ailing Raonic meets his match
Hurtin’ for certain, Canadian ousted by Aussie Kyrgios
WIMBLEDON— The foot bone’s connected to the . . . leg bone. The leg bone’s connected to the . . . hip bone. The hip bone’s connected to the . . . back bone. The back bone’s connected to the . . . shoulder bone.
And finally we get to the root of Milos Raonic’s problem, an explanation perchance for why that bazooka arm was issuing some decidedly un-Raonic-ian serves in his third-round match Friday.
“First ankle, then the hip, then the back. Then, when those things aren’t working, you just put too much pressure on your shoulder, and then the shoulder hurts,” he said. Da agony of da feet. That’s where it started, with surgery for a pinched nerve in May, and not enough time to recuperate heading into Wimbledon, where the pride of Thornhill, Ont., a year ago advanced all the way to the semifinals.
By the fourth set, against brash Australian Nick Kyrgios — either a darling un-conventionalist or a pain in the arse, there’s little middle opinion — Raonic was visibly wincing every time he stretched for a return or tried teeing up a signature rocket serve. Everything hurt. “I’m just dealing with a lot of things. The more I got through the match, the more difficult it was. The feet led to everything else. The feet are, I’d say, the instigator.” The feet were the felons. Seeded seventh, Raonic was eliminated 5-7, 7-5, 7-6, 6-3. And, most shockingly, got out-aced by his upstart opponent in the process: 34 to 18.
Kyrgios’s first serves were faster too and baffling for Raonic, who was simply unable to read them, which meant not getting there, not returning.
For maybe the first time in his career, Raonic now knows what it feels like to be on the opposite side of the net — facing him. Because Kyrgios, who’s never been especially regarded as a monstrous serve-basher — though he doesn’t possess enough of a tour history to be known as anything in particular beyond the endless court antics — turned the tables on the master of the killer boom.
“It’s disappointing,” said Raonic. “I wanted this tournament to last longer. But it is what it is.”
Adding, of the victor: “He came up big in important moments. He stepped up when he needed to.”
With the “Fanatics” — the Australian cheering section of lad-abouts and their lasses – serenading him on (“So good! So good! So good!”) — Kyrgios recovered from the first-set loss, growing ever stronger and more confident, through a late second set break on Raonic’s serve game, then six consecutive points, including a trio of aces, on the tiebreaker which Raonic had led 2-0, and served for the match in the fourth with utter command.
When Kyrgios showed ace, the chorus would sing: “There it is! There it is!”
Only in the late going, leading two sets to one, did Kyrgios knock off the larking and tomfoolery, as grim in expression as Raonic had been from start to finish.
“I’m just dealing with a lot of things. The more I got through the match, the more difficult it was.” MILOS RAONIC
“I don’t fear anyone,” the hot-shot said afterwards. A bit of payback for the 20-year-old. It was Raonic who bounced Kyrgios out of the French Open in the quarters a year ago, after the then-teenaged Australian had astoundingly sent world No. 1 Rafael Nadal packing. The Canadian also dismissed qualifier Kyrgios at this venue, Wimbledon, in four sets.
“I didn’t really want to lose to him again,” said Kyrgios. “He beat me twice last year at Grand Slams.”
The brat threw his racquet — once, it took a weird bounce on the grass and ended up caroming into the stands where a fan made a dandy catch — interacted with spectators, even claimed to take spontaneous coaching advice from one fellow in a Batman T-shirt (useful because Kyrgios is without a coach at the moment, having parted company with that individual just a week before Wimbledon), admonished himself over poor shots and several times tossed off compliments (“well played!”) to his opponent.
Raonic, who prides himself on cool and mental toughness, ignored all of it. Seemed, in fact, to draw added cool from the non-distraction, shutting out everything but the ball, at least in the first set.
But then the match started to get away from him, as Raonic fell victim to passing shots and half-volleys while Kyrgios began to figure out his opponent’s relentless forehand. Raonic had Kyrgios at 40-love in the ninth game of the second set, but the younger man fought back furiously, including the awesome angle volley that brought the game to deuce. Raonic then likewise rose to the occasion, fending off two break points in a row with his forehand, holding serve and nerve. It was a brilliant game for both players.
Kyrgios, however, broke Raonic in the 11th game, getting his racquet on many more of the Canadian’s serves, and converting the break when Raonic, unfathomably, failed to play a shot he obviously thought was going long.
It didn’t and, leading 6-5 in that set, Kyrgios hit three consecutive aces to level the match.
Kyrgios seized the opening and played some inspired tennis, demonstrating he could both thump the ball and caress it, with only 13 unforced errors on the afternoon.
He’d clearly learned a lot from those two previous losses to Roanic.
“I wasn’t struggling at all. If it was to go into a fifth, I would have still felt confident.”
One Canadian, Vasek Pospisil, is still breathing here. His third-round match goes Saturday, versus James Ward. A Brit. Just had to be a dicky Brit.